Borrego Springs - Swainson's Hawks

The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Borrego Springs are seeing the skies filled with Swainson's hawks, as they travel on their annual 6,000-mile summer journey from Argentina to Canada.

White-lined Sphinx Moth

Sphinx moth caterpillars are drawing the birds in, "They're a favorite food item for hawks," says biologist Hal Cohen, who counts hawks in the field and began the Hawkwatch blog. "Most of the birds coming are intent on looking for caterpillars." In fact, despite the hawks arriving early, the Borrego Valley Hawkwatch blog recorded 1,673 hawks Tuesday, the second-highest number since counts started in 2003.

"It's the best year we've had in the last few years," park Supt. Kathy Dice says. "To have 1,600 hawks in a day is a pretty great number." The highest number of hawks counted in a day was 1,851 on March 28, 2011.